Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Lots of people ride their bikes more than me. In fact, there are several members of the elite Friday Coffee Club here in DC who ride more. I just tend to ride the same old bikes forever. Ten years ago, in search of a touring bike that wouldn't destroy my back I made the leap to recumbentcy. (It looks just like the leap to light speed only not.)

I bought a Tour Easy recumbent that I named Nellie because of an unexpectedly fast ride down an aptly named hill in western Maryland called Big Savage Mountain. As I zoomed past 45 miles per hour fully loaded with touring gear, it occurred to me that one false move and I was doomed. So I yelled "Whoa, Nellie!", hit the brakes and the name stuck. (After reaching the bottom of the hill in one piece, I returned to Dagobah for additional training.)

I've been beating on this bike for ten years and after some unpleasantness this spring (a crash, snagging a friend's pants in the chain, a broken chain), I finally reached a milestone that, I have to admit, leaves me chuffed. Four miles into today's commute Big Nellie hit the big 3-0. Now if I knew how to operate my crappy little digital camera I would have a good picture to prove it, but you're just going to have to believe me. Maybe someday the picture can be digitally enhanced when they induct Big Nellie into the lawn chair hall of fame.

No Decimals, I Swear

My plan is to switch over to Little Nellie (no relation), my Bike Friday New World Tourist, while I contemplate some serious TLC for Ms. Big.

Here's the to do list.

Fairing with Black Duct Tape Trim

Scratches in My Line of Sight

Replace the fairing. The fairing or windshield is entirely optional but it makes the bike ride like a missile on downhills and helps hold the front wheel down on slippery roads. This fairing has about 27,000 miles on it because I bought it after about nine months of riding naked. (Nellie, not me, that is.) It's made out of Lexan and it's pretty expensive. North of $250 last time I checked. I have had so many crashes and tip overs that the fairing is literally held together with duct tape. It's scratched so badly that I can't actually see through it anymore.

Wearing through the Seat Cover

Torn Seat Back

Replace the seat: There are several parts to the seat. Most of them are shot to hell. The seat base comprises a dish or pan (the bottom part), three layers of foam, and a seat cover. The pan is in good shape but the foam is no longer cushy where my tushy goes. And the seat cover is wearing through at the front. The seat back has an aluminum loop that's squared off. Tied inside the loop is a mesh seatback. Zip ties are used to secure the mesh to the loop. The loop is in good shape but the mesh is all torn up and stretched so that it doesn't support my back much any more. It's cheaper to buy the whole seat rather than individual pieces so that's my plan. In the bargain, I get a parachute cord to replace the zip ties that seem to break whenever I push back into the seat for power.

Replace the seat bag: The seat back slips over the seat back. It holds a whole bunch of stuff but mine is torn top and bottom.

Tears in Top of Seat Bag

Install the underseat rack: Mrs. Rootchopper bought me an underseat rack several years ago. It will allow me to put panniers beneath my seat, and well forward of the rear axle. This shifts the weight distribution of the bike forward and greatly improves handling.

I think the tab for the three new parts will run about $700. A new bike would cost $2,800 or so.

So now I turn my attention to getting the new saddle on Little Nellie set up just so. And to going to see Norah Jones at Wolf Trap tomorrow night.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Big Nellie was awoken from her three-day slumber a little after seven this morning. She was ready to rumble but three days off the bent had robbed my legs of their bent energy. The ride in was a bit of a slog as a result. Not that it was boring. The good folks at VDOT saw to that.

A detour blocked the ramp that I normally take to the bollard farm at the Woodrow Wilson Bridge underpass. Instead, I rode down the apartment access road that runs parallel to the ramp. This used to be a named South Street before the new bridge was built. The first step in that process was to take down one of the three apartment buildings and knock out South Street. This seems like it happened a lifetime ago, but it was only 13 years ago.

When I reached the bottom. my only choice to access the underpass was a dirt transition back to the base of the ramp. Curiously, this very transition had been removed late last week. The previous version was tamped down and rideable. Transition 2.0 was an accident waiting to happen, especially for my recumbent the front wheel of which is lightly weighted and prone to sliding out. The construction crew had neglected to tamp the dirt down so that it wouldn't support the weight of a bicycle. Having been treated to many, many other incompetent detours in the past, I slowed to a stop and then walked the transition. I wonder if VDOT would ever consider doing this sort of thing on a roadway. I'd love to see motorcyclists pushing their bikes through loose dirt, say, on the Beltway.

Anybody care to crash?

Having survived the detour, I made it under the bridge and encountered an electric sign. The sign was aligned toward the underside of the bridge at the end of South Royal Street so that no car driver could see it. It was intended only for bicyclists. "Stop at All Stop Signs" it said in two alternating flashes. Thanks for the update and the insult.

I rode through Old Town with its typically light summer morning traffic. Pedestrians quivered with fear as I approached stop signs at my usual 10 miles per hour or less. "Run for it, Muffy!" Chad called as he cowered behind his Volvo in his plaid shorts, button down Oxford shirt and sockless Docksiders. "Oh, Chad! That bike looks fearsome. Pour me a Dewars!"

I was really tempted to turn this sign around.

I managed not to hit any of the high and mighty denizens of Old Town. but I did manage to watch about 90 percent of the cars roll through stop signs from one end of Old Town to the other. I suck at physics, but I am pretty sure that a Mercedes SUV at 8 miles per hour will exert a whole lot more hurtin' than a bike at 10 miles per hour. I do believe the difference in force is 6 or 7 fold. So, maybe they should move the sign to King Street, the main drag of Old Town, for the remainder of the week to even things out. Sadly, this would probably slow Chad and Muffy down as they both drove their matching Mercedes SUVs to their environmental law offices two miles away.

Nothing else pissed me off on the way to work. In fact, just north of the airport, the Park Service was removing the remains of the tree they cut down late last week. I would hate to be in bicycle advocacy around here. Some jurisdictions are pretty bike friendly. Others are downright hostile. And within the National Park Service there are small groups that are complete neanderthals (some of our Park Police officers could star in a Geico commercial) and others are downright enlightended (the tree crew cleared the tree that fell across the path within hours).

On the way home, karma ruled as I was treated to low humidity (mighty rare here in Camp Swampy) and a blustery tailwind. Bicyclists blew by me (most of them calling out their passes for a change) and I just cruised along breathing as if I was sitting in my office. The fairing on Big Nellie was catching the wind and propelling me along nicely. At one point as I was cruising along at 18 miles per hour, I could hear the theme music from Jonny Quest all around me. Okay, maybe it was a rogue earworm, but wasn't that Race Banner on a Trek that just went by? When I reached the Wilson Bridge an additional detour was available and I avoided the dirt transition altogether. Maybe the construction crew has finally given up trying to kill me. Or maybe tomorrow they'll just attack me and eat my flesh. Stay tuned.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

There are few things that can make you more miserable on a long bike ride than a sore butt. Many a bucket list cross country bike tour has been abandoned because of saddle sores. I hate them myself but I rarely get them.

My pre-emptive cure for saddle sores is a Brooks leather saddle. About the time of the 1970s cycling boom, leather saddles fell out of favor with bicycle manufacturers. They are heavy, expensive and feel about the same as any other saddle during short rides. When you are on a bike for several hours, however, the foam in these saddles loses its cushiness and your butt pays dearly, Ideally, what you want is a saddle that disappears under your behind in the sense that you don't notice that its there.

After using a couple of plastic and foam saddles for several thousand miserable miles, I finally broke down and spent the bucks for a Brooks B17 saddle for The Mule, my 1993 Specialized Sequoia. Some people find these leather saddles really uncomfortable, but I've liked all of mine right out of the box. I rode the B17 for 7,000 miles. I was coming down a long hill in the Catskill mountains one day and I heard a snap under my butt. One of the rails of the saddle (there are two that connect the saddle to the bike) broke. Generally speaking, you don't want parts of the bike snapping off when you're going 30 miles per hour. It's just not a good thing. In this case, the other rail was sufficiently strong that I had for the rest of the ride a pretty darn nice suspension thing going.

I replaced the B17 with a Brooks Champion Flyer, which is a B17 with springs. This one lasted another 7,000 miles or so before one of its rails broke. (I am told this breaking rail thing happens because the clamp on my seat post is a little too narrow for the rails of the saddles. I have tried to replace the seat post to no avail - this is one of the short comings of riding a 19 year old bike.)

I put another Flyer (they dropped the Champion from the model name) on The Mule and it has lasted probably 9,000 miles. Somehow I managed to break the tensioning bolt - which adjusts the leather so that it doesn't sag - within the last couple of years, but the saddle still feels fine. That is to say, I don't even notice it when I am riding,

When I bought Little Nellie, my Bike Friday New World Tourist, a few years back, I was concerned that using a Flyer would not provide enough cushion. Little Nellie has smaller wheels and a stiffer frame than The Mule. This time I bought a Brooks B67. This saddle has a textured surface and a wider seat area. For a long time I was distracted by the noises this one made. It squeaked whenever it flexed. (It has since stopped doing so.) It was otherwise comfortable but its width has been a problem. It's too wide in the back for my legs to move freely or for me to slide my butt back to get more oomph into things when the going gets hilly, (It's actually designed for a more upright seating position so these short comings are a consequence of using the wrong saddle for the job at hand.)

I've put up with this saddle for over 7,000 miles and, finally, decided to spring for another Flyer. I figure if I don't like it better I can just switch it to The Mule. So I rode Little Nellie into DC to pick a saddle up at BicycleSpace, a new shop that caters to people who use their bikes for practical pursuits.

After a 15 minute saddle-ectomy and resection call me Dr. Moreau), I was good to go. The difference was amazing. I had been fighting that B67 saddle for years and now my legs were free to pedal efficiently. I was suddenly 10 percent faster that before. Sweet! All of a sudden, I have a new bike.

I rode to Eastern Market for a lemonade and pretzel to celebrate. Then I explored the Anacostia River Trail. After heading north a couple of miles along the acres of parking lots at RFK Stadium, I turned around and rode over the super nice bridge that was recently constructed to take the trail over the railroad tracks that run up and down the eastern seaboard.

The ride home along the Mount Vernon Trail was noticeably easier with the Flyer. I did notice some soreness in my arms and shoulders but this just means I need to tilt the saddle up a little to put more weight on my fanny.

B67 on left,Flyer on right

Here's a picture of both saddles. Notice how the old saddle has pronounced dents in it where my sit bones used to go. It will take a few hundred miles to get those on the new saddle. Think of them like the pocket on a baseball glove; the glove still works without a pocket but once the pocket is formed it becomes and extension of your body. That's how dents in a leather saddle work.

One of the ironies of this whole leather saddle thing is that I, and pretty much everyone in my family tree, have a bony butt. I am forever having slacks taken in in the seat. Comfort on a saddle is not about how much padding you have on your anatomy, it's about supporting your sit bones. Leather saddles are superb at this.

I am eager to see how this new saddle works when I switch to Little Nellie for commuting next week. (Big Nellie is about to celebrate a big milestone. She'll get a new seat, too, but it will cost over $350. Such is the price of recumbency,)

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Dealing with the local bicycling infrastructure around DC drives cyclists and cycling advocates up the wall. Call and complain to Mr. X at agency Y and you get nothing but bureaucratic intransigence. Call Ms. Z at agency Q and you get fast action.

I have been complaining to various agencies a lot over the last couple of years. This is because I have empirical data that proves beyond a reasonable doubt that they are trying to kill me. The Humpback Bridge project included some seriously nasty detours that only a masochist could have planned and executed. Week after week the construction crew invented new ways to take me out. When the project was completed, however, the trail was vastly improved. The Wilson Bridge and Jones Point Park projects give new meaning to the term willful negligence. The creativity of the detours was amazing. Gravel, soft tar, raised manhole covers in the shade. The project is almost done, but this time the end result is much worse than what existed before the project began. In 1999!!!! It's been 13 years of detour whack-a-mole..

Ah, but when it comes to storm related damage, the folks at the National Park Service which maintains the Mount Vernon Trail are surprisingly competent. Hurricane Isabel wiped out an entire neighborhood on my route to work. The Mount Vernon Trail nearby was an absolute mess of heaved boardwalks, fallen trees and other debris. I thought it would be out of action for a month or more. In less than two weeks. the NPS had it back to normal.

Today was another, albeit smaller, example of the NPS working their maintenance magic. As I rode on the trail north from the airport, I encountered a fallen tree that completely obstructed the trail. A small opening on the right provided narrow passage. (The passage on the left looks open but the approach from the far side was not passable on a road bike.)

Morning: Ruh, Roh!

(True to form just after I was took this picture, a cyclist came up behind me at speed, intending to ride around the tree, for some reason as far to the left of the gap as possible. Suddenly, a cyclist coming from the other direction appeared exactly where he was supposed to be and directly in front of Mr. Speedy. Emergency stop. Dirty look. Washington DC has the highest percentage of adults with graduate degrees in the country. And the lowest percentage of adults with common sense.)

Evening: Sweet!

On the way home the tree had been cut up into pieces that were placed off to the side of the trail. I'll bet the wood is gone by tomorrow night. The task of cutting the tree up in near 100 degree heat was probably not a whole lot of fun. Thank you, NPS.

Too bad we can't sic the NPS tree crew on the bollards down at the Wilson Bridge.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Today was one of those days that TV weatherpeople go nuts over. It's going to be hot. And humid. And dangerous. And we'll have another update in five minutes. This just in: it's hot and humid and dangerous. Drink lots of water. More after the break. It's going to be hot and humid and dangerous...

That's right, folks. You MUST panic because we said so.

Shut your pie hole, Roker. Can't you see I'm sweating?

Actually, it was downright nice out when I left home at 7 this morning. It did get warmer and muggier over the course of the next hour and a half but not dangerously so. The Mount Vernon Trail had most of its usual runners and cyclists. Since school is out, the Catholic SUV parade at Saint Mary's School in Old Town Alexandria is gone for a while.

Roker and friends said today would suck, but for nearly my entire ride it was suckless. Until I got to the last half mile of my ride.

I was climbing up the connector bridge from the MVT across the George Washington Parkway to Rosslyn with my usual recumbent sloth. As I reached the bridge I could see a group of male cyclists at the far end of the bridge. I pulled over and there sitting on the ground among them was a young woman. As I approached, I could hear her conversing with the men. One look in her face and I could tell she was not quite right.

She had come down the hill from Rosslyn in her bike and crashed near the edge of the bridge. I didn't see any blood but she was covered in dirt and grime. I overheard one of the others say that she crashed, stood up, and fell straight down like a tree. Fortunately, she was wearing a helmet. (If you're planning on passing out and falling like a tree, wear a helmet.)

I hung out for a few minutes trying to think of a way to make myself useful. One of the other cyclists was on his cell phone calling for medical assistance. It occurred to me to go up the trail a ways and direct the bicycle traffic. I saw her stand and she was saying she was alright. I turned my back and one of the men said, "Grab her." I turned and saw her slumping, clearly losing consciousness. Not good. The other cyclists braced her and guided her back to her sitting position. Three falls is an automatic TKO in bike commuting. You're going nowhere, young lady.

(All I could think of was what the nurse said to my wife when she came to after getting hit by an SUV last May. DON'T MOVE.)

She stayed seated and I went back to being traffic guy. I heard sirens and in a few minutes I could see the EMTs walking down the hill. I waved to them and they yelled at me to come tell them what was going on. I gave them the scoop and they calmly went about taking her vital signs and evaluating her. The other cyclists left. I set to work writing my contact info on a business card as I was going to offer to take her bike to my office if she ended up going to the hospital.

For the next several minutes she chatted quietly with the EMTs and drank from my water bottle, They asked her where she was headed and she said, "Foggy Bottom."

"Do you want to go to the hospital?"

"No."

They told her she needed to walk with them to the ambulance to fill out some paperwork. I suspect this was also another test of her condition. One EMT grabbed her bike and the others escorted her up the hill to Lynn Street. I left for work.

I hope she is okay.

Many thanks to the cyclists who obeyed me without complaint and slowed down. Thanks to the cyclists who took care of her, kept her calm, and called for the ambulance. Good on you. Thanks to the Arlington EMTs, too. My helmet's off to you guys.

(By the way, what do the EMTs do with your bike if they take you to the hospital?)

There was some speculation online that she crashed trying to avoid a plastic bollard and traffic cone in the center of the trail at the start of the bridge. The trail comes down a brief steep section then turns sharply to the left where it reaches the bollard, the cone, and the bridge across the Parkway. Since the bollard and cone can't stop a motor vehicle, I have to wonder why they're even there.

The ride home was mercifully uneventful. I rode what I thought was a blistering pace in 97 degree heat. A young woman in gym shorts passed me on a road bike. I tried to give chase. I failed. Here I am going 18 miles per hour and huffing and puffing and feeling my oats. There she goes like a bullet. I don't even think she was breathing hard. Dang. You go, girl.

Six miles later, I reached the bollard farm. The world's most incompetent and creative construction crew was at it again. Under the bridge, a fence obstructed half the trail. The sidewalk bypass with 3 bollards had an added traffic cone apparently to ensure that skinny evil doers on bikes could not ride under the bridge. I stopped to take a picture. From what I could tell the cone was serving no purpose. I suppose if you have one lying around you should put it in front of something. You might cause a bike accident. I think this contractor gets a bonus for every cyclist he takes out.

Evil Doers Beware

Once I cleared the bollard farm, I rode the rest of the way unscathed. Remarkably the National Park Service has resisted putting a single bollard on the Mount Vernon Trail for the next 3 1/2 miles of my commute. What's up with that:? Didn't they get the memo?

Saturday, June 16, 2012

I just spent the last four days driving farther into the heart of Dixie than I ever thought I would. My daughter is interested in colleges far from home so this was our first long drive. We hit six colleges and two time zones in four days. Total distance driven was something like 1,800 miles. Interstates 85 and 95 leave a lot to be desired. There's a whole lot of ugly from Durham NC to the western outskirts of Atlanta. When Alabama seems pretty by comparison, you know you've been through some seriously harsh looking terrain. To add to the fun, there are billboards every 100 feet.

Maybe they had a few bollards left over?

After lolling about on the deck for most of the day, making sure that my sandaled feet were good and sunburnt, I hopped on Little Nellie for some light riding. I rolled through the suburban streets near my home eventually ending up on the top of a hill on Fort Hunt Road. Little Nellie did me proud by taking the hill at high-ish speed. Our route took us to the Washington Street deck above the beltway on the Mount Vernon Trail. There yet another construction crew was busy making a mess on the trail.

I rode down through the bollard farm and rolled through Old Town Alexandria. An impatient driver in a convertible with a University of North Carolina bumper sticker surged passed me only to be absorbed by a hoard of pedestrians one block up the road. I take it that Mr. UNC wasn't Phi Beta Kappa.

After some more fun with cars, I rejoined the Mount Vernon Trail near Slaters Lane north of Old Town. The trail was shockingly empty for a perfect Saturday afternoon. No Volksmarchers. No Lancelots. No kiddies on their training wheels wobbling back and forth across the trail.

As I made my way past the satellite parking lots at National Airport, Captain America rode by on a bike. He looked rather puffy and tired. You'd be tired too if you had to carry a damned shield around all day. And don't even get me started on that sidekick named Bucky.

I took the Crystal City underpass and rode by a security guard who was making a cell phone call next to the railroad underpass. This could be the worst place in the metropolitan area for cell phone reception which probably explains why he is a security guard and not a lawyer specializing in intellectual property.

Lovely ladies

Once in Crystal City I came upon two groups of girls dressed to the nines. I am guessing that they were part of two quinceanara celebrations. Or maybe I had stumbled on a new sport. The girls in the bridesmaid dresses were the offensive line and the tall girl in the flashy gown was the QB? There were a bunch of guys in vests hanging about like a Paul Anka convention or something.

Was this a huddle before third and long?

My route took me through Long Bridge Park where I came upon the same woman runner four separate times. I wasn't stalking you, I swear.

I rode back home via the still deserted Potomac Avenue that parallels US 1 along the railroad tracks. I cut under US 1 to ride into Del Ray. A woman was standing next to a Subaru that had stopped after passing me. "SIR!"

"SIR!"

I stopped figuring she needed directions.

She was interested in my Bike Friday. Did I like it? What was good and bad about it?

I have mixed feelings about my Bike Friday. It's fun to ride but it is very hard on my back. I have a hard time going fast on it too. (I am thinking about putting a Brooks Flyer saddle on it which may help with both problems.) I told her I didn't have all that many miles on it, just a little over 7,000 miles. That got a laugh.

She thanked me and I rode off. In two blocks, I see a guy on another Bike Friday. I wonder if she stopped to quiz him.

The rest of the ride was uneventful except for the ass in a car on King Street that deliberately positioned the car to keep me from passing on the right. No way this driver was going to let me win the battle of King Street. After all, if he had to sit at a light, then EVERYBODY else should too. As I see it, if y'all drove skinnier cars, traffic would move a lot faster. Eventually, I squeezed by him and never saw him again. He's probably still stuck at a light near Columbus Street.

The rest of the ride home didn't include a single super hero, girl in a fancy dress, or dipstick driving a car. There's always tomorrow.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Well, by the time you see this I hope to have either found the college of my daughter's dreams or have eliminated four from consideration. Here's some other rides I like:

My Commute: I am
incredibly fortunate to live among one of the nicest bike trails (okay,
technically, it’s a multiuse path) in the country. After 3 miles of mostly
mundane suburbia, I jump on the Mount Vernon Trail for 11 miles. I get to see
and hear wildlife - deer, beavers, foxes, rabbits, geese, ducks, egrets,
herons, ospreys, and, my favorite, bald eagles on the way to and from work. (I
especially enjoy watching the goslings and ducklings develop over the course of
the spring and summer.) The MVT follows the Potomac River, so every day I get a
picture post card view of Washington
and its monuments. Old Town Alexandria
has quaint but outrageously expensive homes, old and new, hundreds of tourists,
buskers including a man playing an organ made from wine glasses, even an old
trolley tunnel. And to top it off I get to ride past the runways of National Airport.
I love watching the planes take off and land just a few feet over my
head. A secondary runway ends behind a security fence only 50 yards or so from
the trail. It is unbelievably cool to be
riding along in my commuting daze only to see a passenger plane roar overhead
on take off or landing.

Event Rides: I am
not big on event rides but I’ve done a few that have floated my boat.

My first event ride was Bike
Virginia way back in 1991. I did it on my Trek 1200 and rode every mile I
could possibly ride. The first day of moderate hills was a bitch. The second
day we rode in a cold soaking rain. We wore garbage bags to fend off the
elements. Our second stop of the day was at Natural Chimneys where there was a
huge stone outdoor fireplace. Like manna from heaven. Soon after that the rain stopped. I did my first century on day 3 and followed
it up with a massage that felt so good I laughed through the entire thing.

The Backroads Century
is the annual fall century of the Potomac Pedalers cycling club. It traverses
the Shenandoah Valley between Berryville and
Front Royal VA, somehow avoiding any major roads. The scenery is too nice for words. Farm after
farm. Little churches. The Blue Ridge Mountains.
Little churches. And lots of happy bicyclists. I’ve done the metric century for
the last two years. Both days were the perfect romp in the countryside. On the
way back I stop for pie at a place called Hill High Orchards. The pies are made
in a Sara Lee factory but they still taste amazing.

The Fifty States Ride
is held every September entirely within the confines of our nation’s capital.
The streets are open to traffic so you have to have your wits about you. The
ride spirals and weaves its way all over the city so that riders can brag that
they rode on all fifty streets named after a U. S. state. (Texas Street is ironically pretty tiny,
by the way.) Originally, this ride was
held in August, but it was just too darned hot and muggy. I did it three times (the third after it was
moved to cooler September). Each time I rode a different bike. Each time I
cursed the hills and the stop signs and traffic lights at the bottom of every
one. I swore I would never ride it
again, but was coerced into riding for a fourth time last year. That’s when I figured out what is so special
about the ride. It’s a social event on two wheels. All the stopping shatters riders into
clusters who socialize over the impossibly complex cue sheet. And the people of the city urge the riders on
like it’s a stage of a grand tour. It’s
somewhere around 65 miles (depending on how many wrong turns you make) but
feels like 100. I’m an introvert but I’m
met more people through this ride than any other. I’m pretty sure there is a fifth Fifty States
Ride in my future.

Bike to Work Day
is the annual call for people to get out of their cars and ride to work, I
commute by bike over 100 times a year, so Bike to Work Day to me is a bit like
New Years Eve to W. C. Fields. Oddly
enough, I miss this ride more than any other because of work conflicts. I still have managed to amass a drawer full
of Bike to Work Day t-shirts (3 shades of green, plus red, blue, white, orange,
and yellow). The festive atmosphere and
ample giveaways at the pit stops add to the fun.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

I am away on a hunting expedition. We are seeking out the perfect college for our perfect daughter. Why we are heading to South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, principally because they are theoretically driving distance away - which you can't say for the 3 colleges in Scotland that are on her list.

Since you paid good money for access to this blog, I thought I'd better do some entries while I'm traveling. What? You didn't pay? Dude, how am I going to afford my new tadpole trike? I kid, of course. The blog is free, but please feel free to send some financial love to WABA in care of their Bollard Demolition Fund.

And so here are two of my favorite rides:

Maui Downhill:On our honeymoon, Mrs. Rootchopper and I got
up at 2 am and took a van to the top of Halleakala crater on the island of Maui.After the sun rise shot what looked like laser beams through the
irregularities in the far side of the crater rim, we donned yellow suits (they
looked like the kind of rain gear kids used to wear at the bus stop in the 1960s)
and motorcycle helmets. We hopped aboard mountain bikes with seriously beefy
disk brakes and rode down the mountain on the sole access road.We went through dozens of switchbacks with
our tour leader riding down the middle of the road swerving like a madman so
that the bleary eyed drivers on the way up the mountain were sure to see us.
About half way down we stopped for a breakfast feast (fresh Kona coffee is
unbelievably good).Stuffed to the top
tubes, we used our pedals for all of 30 seconds before gravity took over as we
left the restaurant parking lot We glided all the way to the ocean town of Paia. Paia is known for
two things, wind surfing and Maui wowie.It’s a one of a kind place. The ride was unique
and very easy on our bodies except for our hands.All that braking wore our hands out. My hands
were fine in a couple of days.We
started on what looked like the moon and ended up with the trade winds blowing
through the trees. Memories of this ride have lingered for a long, long time.

Golden Gate:One summer long ago, I worked as government
intern in San Francisco.
It was the most boring job ever. I had never been off the east coast, however,
so I was in for some culture shock. My summer started in Davis
CA which was Biketown USA even back
then. There were way more bikes than cars. And a casual vibe that only a California college town
could offer. After a week of hospitality from Don Kanare, a college friend, I
moved to Berkeley
and worked in “The City.”One Saturday I
took my bike on a BART train to go exploring in one of the most beautiful
cities in the world.I rode all over the
place but I remember most riding up Russian Hill and having to lean over my
handlebars to stay upright. Can you say, “Legs on fire!”? At the top of the
hill, I looked to my right and could see Fisherman’s Wharf waaaay doowwnnn
there. It was scary steep so I rode in the least steep direction. I found my
self cruising at speed under redwoods in the Presidio, which was still a
military base.It was a total rush.I made my way to the Golden Gate Bridge
and rode across it on the side path. Can you say, “Just plain awesome, dude!?”My ride finished in the chi chi town of Sausalito. After hanging
out, I took a ferry across the bay past Alcatraz
and back to the City.

I'm still on the road. I hope to learn how to pronounce Wofford and learn why anyone would name a school Furman today. Here's some more cool rides:

Lake Champlain:My family and I took a vacation to Lake Champlain in late summer when our kids were
little.My wife took the kids kayaking
on the lake and I rented a mountain bike.The bike was a piece of junk, but I pumped up the nearly flat tires and
hoped for the best. I rode north out of North Hero on the east side of the lake
and just started meandering. I had never done any off road bicycling before so
I was having a great time tooling around on dirt roads and single track. It was
the week after Labor Day and most of the summah people were gone.The weather was perfect.I rode for about 4 hours and even joined some
folks riding from Montreal to Boston on an AIDS ride.I would love to go back and circumnavigate
the lake by bike one day.

Erie Riding: In 2004 I rode from Niagara Falls to Albany.From Freeport
to Lyons, I rode along the Erie
Canal towpath.The day
started in fog and I pedaled along the limestone trail with the canal to my
right. Packets (canal boats) and other water craft drifted by so closely that I
could chat with the people on board. I stopped in towns along the way for food
and water. Everybody was so laid back.This is New York?The locals lacked the grating accent that
everyone associates with New Yawkers.After
over 100 miles, I camped out along the tow path. Ducks quacked me to sleep. When
I woke up, I could see that while I slept some boats had docked in the canal
nearby.Although the canal and Mohawk River are nice in the eastern half of the ride,
they didn’t compare to the first 100 miles or so in the western area. The
section of the canal from Freeport to Rochester was especially
nice.And watching a lock in action is
worth the stop every time.

Here are a couple of rides that I enjoyed. One thing I hope you get from this is that great rides are often right out your door. You don't need to pay an entry fee to have a splendid time on your bike.

Mind the GAP: The
Great Allegheny Passage is a trail that runs from Cumberland
MD almost all the way to Pittsburgh. I’ve done most of it twice and
I’d do it again in a heartbeat.Actually, circumstances have conspired so that I’ve never done the whole
thing in one go. My most ambitious attempt predated the opening of the section
of the trail from Cumberland
to Meyersdale PA.So I did some
seriously steep hill climbing instead. A few years later, my daughter attended
basketball camp in Frostburg. I used the pick up and drop off as an excuse to
fill in the gaps (so to speak). The trail is crushed limestone and can be
ridden on a hybrid bike. I have used both my recumbent and my Bike Friday
folder and they did just fine.What
makes the ride so nice is the variety. From Cumberland to Frostburg the trail runs
alongside a train line that has a coal fired excursion train.There are several tunnels from Cumberland to Meyersdale.
I was shocked at how hard it is to ride in the dark of a tunnel. The panoramic
views of the Laurel
Highlands, also known as
the Pennsylvania Dutch Alps, made me stop and gawk. I also stopped to take in
the Eastern Continental Divide west of Frostburg.It makes you feel like you’ve accomplished
something grand when you pass over it.The Garrett Wind Farm is a series of immense white wind turbines on a
ridge looming over the trail.Every time
I see those slow turning arms I feel like aliens have arrived.Quick somebody call Gene Barry!The Salsbury Viaduct is a laughably long
railroad bridge over a valley.There are
more trestles ahead with views over mountain rivers with fly fishermen way down
below. The town of Ohiopyle located in Ohiopyle State Park is small and funky.Kayakers, tubers, fishermen, cyclists and
tourist headed for Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece Fallingwater all mingle
here. Along the trail, you’ll see wild turkey and deer and all kinds of other wildlife
too as you ride through a tunnel of green.The GAP is an east coast gem.

New England Kettle
Ponds: Back when I was starving student, the city of Boston on a hot summer day felt like a
prison. Having air conditioning was rare. Fortunately, when my sister finished
at BU that spring, she left me her Peugeot racing bike with a warped rear
wheel. My roommate John and I got the inane idea to ride 20 miles to Walden Pond to go swimming.Other than the fact that the wheel kept
rubbing the brakes, the ride was a great adventure.Walden is a kettle pond. It has warm water on
the surface, down to about your chest, below that is ice water!Like the bike with the rubbing wheel, the
roads to Walden left a lot to be desired back then (now there are rail trails
out that-a-way).I scared my friend
Becca half to death on one trip.I wised
up after a while. I bought a Raleigh Grand Prix that had two true wheels and,
as a bonus, a frame that actually fit me.(Bike fit? What the hell did I know?) We later learned of another kettle
pond called Farm Pond in Sherburne
Mass.At that point, we had access to a car, but the
town wouldn’t let outsiders park at the pond.Bikes to the rescue! Farm Pond was ours.I continued to ride to kettle ponds after I moved to Providence.They made for great destinations on hot summer days.

Friday, June 8, 2012

What a weird week! My frustration over the absurd mess where the Mount Vernon Trail crosses under the Woodrow Wilson Bridge led to a somewhat contentious online exchange with Mark Blacknell, WABA's el presidente. I threatened to stomp his spokes and quit WABA if he didn't do something to help me with the bollard farm. He threatened to give me alcohol poisoning at a biker bar. Ultimately Mark tired of my obnoxious persistence and foisted the mess on Shane Farthing, who is WABA's executive director.

After all that fun, I rode home from the office in decent weather. It started to sprinkle but the skies didn't look all that bad. At the bollard farm, I stopped to chat with another cyclist (Paul D). As we went our separate ways, the sprinkles turned to showers. Then the showers became a monsoon. And it stayed that way for over 1/2 hour. After 5 minutes of monsoon, I was as wet as I could be so the only thing that mattered was visibility. I turned on my blinky red light. I was on the MVT so there was little worry of being run over by a car, but I felt better because the back of my helmet was going BLINK every second or so. The real problem was seeing the path ahead. Water was pouring down my glasses. I wiped them with a finger every so often and that seemed to help. Despite the fact that Big Nellie has a big fairing on the front, even my legs were soaked. Another feature of Big Nellie is its foam seat. It was raining so hard I felt like I was sitting on a sponge.Pedal. Squish. Pedal. Squish.

I squished onward. South of Belle Haven Park I encountered two saw horses with a Trail Closed sign on one of them. My option was to turn around and cross the parkway in a monsoon at one of the most dangerous intersections in the area (Belle Haven Boulevard) or ignore the sign. No brainer. I rode around the barrier and kept trucking. To my relief the trail was no worse beyond the barrier. (I think the saw horses were left over from some flooding earlier in the day. The NPS wasn't going out in a monsoon to removed them. I don't blame them.)

The trail zigs and zags for a hundred yards here, so I slowed way down to see where I was going and not hit any other scofflaws coming from the other direction. I often tell people I could ride the MVT with my eyes closed. Now I know I wasn't lying.

After the Tulane Drive turn off, I spotted a cyclists standing under a tree trying to stay dry. He wasn't succeeding. I yelled, "Just ride. You're already wet." He just smiled.

As the downpour continued, my concerns turned to body heat. The rain was cold and I had on a t-shirt and shorts. My mind turned to all those freezing winter commutes. If I could handle January, I could put up with this. Pedal. Squish

I arrived home and went inside. Water was literally pouring off me as if I had just come out of a swimming pool. Inside, I unpacked my waterproof Ortlieb panniers. They had an inch or two of water in the bottom of them! Unreal. Water never gets in them.

Thursday was an off day. I traded e-mails with Shane Farthing about the bollard farm and sent my bollard farm blog post to various people who I thought might be able to help. I invited Shane to call me Friday morning and invited him to the Friday Coffee Club gathering of bike commuters and miscreants at Swing's coffee near the White House.

I chose Little Nellie for my commute today. Big Nellie's foam seat was still wet and I didn't want to put a diaper over it. It's so undignified to ride on a diaper. As I rode through the bollard farm, I encountered a giant paving machine under the bridge. The machine was in operation and nobody was directing trail traffic. I do believe the construction crew was breaking new ground in its ineptitude.

I noticed a newbie at Coffee Club as I sat with Ed and Lisa. Ed observed that he prefers to meet indoors. When indoors we stand at small tall tables that are conducive to mingling. Outside we sit at low tables like potted plants. I felt a bit like a hibiscus today, to tell the truth.

As the confab was breaking up, the newbie came and sat down next to me. It was Shane. We had a long talk in which I learned a lot about bike advocacy and how WABA works. There is simply no way that the expansion of everyday cycling in this area could have happened without an organization like WABA. With more cyclists, come more cries for help. So WABA has to do triage. Shane agreed that the bollard farm was a problem that needed addressing. Some sort of short term solution was needed. So he agreed to make a few phone calls. The bollards are a symptom of a bigger problem that WABA is looking into. There are many overlapping jurisdictions involved with the Mount Vernon Trail. They don't talk which means that local cyclists and their advocates play wack-a-mole with these sorts of problems. If fact, two bollard problems were resolved within the last month, one in Falls Church the other in Arlington. So Shame is working on getting everybody talking. Ultimately, we agreed that the mess under the bridge needed a re-design. That could take time.

Later in the day, I learned that through an act of divine intervention a chronic problem with a dangerous at grade crossing of the GW Parkway was finally getting some action after years of complaints. Hope springs eternal. Soon after Shane emailed me to tell me that VDOT was going to paint the black blogs yellow, add reflective material, put up some warning signs and add some lighting.

Man vs. Bollards

With such good karma, I was not surprised to have a tail wind for the ride home. Little Nellie and I made tracks and survived the bollard mess. I stopped to take a picture since traffic cones were now placed on one side of the bollards in a lame attempt to add a little visibilty. A cyclists rode through the bollards and, as he passed me said, "More God damned bollards!" Don't blame me, buddy. I don't want them either.

I stopped at the Morningside bald eagle nest. I haven't seen much of anything there in a week. After a minute, I was about to leave when I heard this outburst of squawks coming from then nest. Then, coming in from the river on the opposite side of the nest, a massive bald eagle swooped in. I'm guessing it was the adult male bringing dinner. The eaglets went crazy. I couldn't see them but they making all kinds of noise. As they started to come down, another smaller bald eagle exited the nest through the trees in front of me. This was an adult female. (Bald eagles don't get their white head and tail feathers for a few years so the adults are easily identified.)

Next week will be calmer. I'm going college hunting with my daughter. I hope I don't see any bollards.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

How can you tell that a bike trail is poorly designed? One tell tale sign is literally as sign that says, "Dismount - Walk Bike." When was the last time you saw a road sign for motor vehicles that said "Stop Your Car and Get Out?" See my point? The trail designer fundamentally does not understand what using a bike for transportation is. He or she should be doing something else for a living.

Three black bollards at base of hill - Next stop: the ER

Which brings me to bollards. Bollards are columns of steel or concrete intended to stop a motor vehicle. They are unforgiving by design. If you hit one while passing on a bike, the bollard will win and you will lose. Every time. Certain trail designers have a bollards fetish like they are lingams. They put them everywhere. Sometimes they are the lesser of many evils. Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House has bollards. They stop truck bombs. This is a good thing.

This raised manhole cover is in the shade.

Top of ramp leading to bollard farm - Put one here instead

The black bollards should be rotated 90 degrees - off the trail

The Mount Vernon Trail (MVT) goes underneath the Woodrow Wilson Bridge at the south end of South Royal Street in Old Town Alexandria Virginia. The Woodrow Wilson Bridge is a massive 12 lane structure that takes I-95 and the Capital Beltway across the Potomac River. It is an essential part of the infrastructure on the east coast. If a truck bomb went off underneath it, the entire east coast economy would be crippled for years. (Not to mention a few hundred people dying.) It absolutely needs to be protected. (Two notes: First, I'm not telling evil doers anything they don't already know. Second, the underside of the bridge has been wide open for most of the bridge's existence including the more than 10 years since the truck bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City. in 1993.)

The underside of the bridge has been under development as part of the rehabilitation of the adjacent Jones Point Park. While this work has been underway, detour after detour has been built for the MVT, every last one of them has been unsafe, and some downright treacherous. Many trail users, including myself, have called to complain. Within weeks the troublesome detour is replaced by another equally treacherous one. It has been simply unbelievable.

These new bollards are more visible and narrower.

A few weeks ago, the direct routing of the trail under the bridge was closed. A detour directed cyclists through a gravel strewn curb cut onto the sidewalk. In the middle of the sidewalk was a telephone pole. Right next to that was a utility box cover that protruded from the pavement by about an inch. Dodge one obstacle and hit another.

Once you made it around the detour you exited the sidewalk back to the trail. The transition from curb to trail was one long irregular gap, perfectly suited for a bicycle tire. To add to the mess, gravel was strewn about here as well. Once clearing this hazard you had to make a sharp turn to avoid a jersey barrier and some orange barrels placed mid-path. This was followed by a raised man hole cover (actually the pavement had been lowered, but the result is the same) situated in the shadow of the bridge. Once beyond the northern side of the bridge, trail users encountered a raised curb protruding into the trail. The trail takes a 90 degree right hand turn at the southern end of the bridge.

Beginning a few weeks ago on Bike to Work Day (I kid you not), construction crews blocked the trail after the right hand turn. The detour took you over a gravel transition to pavement then through a hard right turn back to the trail. This might be good for cyclocross but not a bike trail. In fact, on Bike to Work Day, a cyclist hit the gravel transition and blew out a tire.

At one time or another cyclists have complained about various aspects of these detours. Most recently a cyclist whom I met only tonight as I took pictures in the rain, complained about the mid path telephone pole. He was assured that it would be removed in a couple of weeks. Four weeks later it was replaced with three black bollards. About the same time three black bollards were placed across the trail on the southern side of the bridge. These three bollards are at the base of a long ramp and would be encountered at speed.

These bollards replaced the telephone pole.

About a month ago at the base of a ramp leading to the MVT near Rosslyn, a cyclists clipped a bollard and ended up in the hospital. It is simply astounding to me that just 9 miles away, six black bollards would be installed on the trail. I wonder if the city can be sued if someone hits them. And the chances of someone hitting them are 100 PERCENT. How many people will have to be taken to a trauma center before this mess gets fixed? What will it take for officials from the City of Alexandria to find someone competent to monitor future work.

When I complained about this for the umpteenth time online today (yes, in the past I have contacted authorities to no avail), the president of the Washington Area Bicyclists Association (WABA), the biggest bike advocacy organization by far in the region, told me that I should advocate for myself as WABA can't possibly deal with such trivial situations. They have bigger fish to fry elsewhere. In essence, he told me (albeit politely) when I clearly was frustrated and sick of the situation, to pound sand.

I have been a member of WABA for longer than I can remember. I donate to WABA through the Combined Federal Campaign. I even re-upped my membership two days ago for two years. On WABA's website are the following words:

"Since 1972 the Washington Area Bicyclist Association has been fighting
hard to ensure that you can ride wherever you want to go safely."

Sunday, June 3, 2012

After the scary, scary thunderstorms that hit Friday evening and night, we here in the DC area were left with the kind of day that Spinal Tap fans would call an 11. Just perfect. 75 degrees, low humidity, comfortable breezes, bright blue skies with wispy clouds dabbled about.

After riding something like 170 miles over the course of the last five days, it was for what Dave Davies of the Kinks sang about back in 1969: lazing on a sunny afternoon.

After reading the newspapers, I did about 6 miles of biking to various shops in my neighborhood. The first couple of miles was to and from the local hardware store. Village Hardware is tucked into a small shopping center in Fort Hunt. It thrives because people hate going to Home Depot. (Coincidentally, it's owned by a cyclist who I see every morning on the Mount Vernon Trail.) Village Hardware sells shelled bird seed treated with cayenne pepper. Squirrels don't like it and it doesn't leave a big mess on the lawn. So, even though its pretty expensive, I use it. Oh, and I forgot to mention that woodpeckers and goldfinches love the stuff. I get a free nature show every morning at breakfast as the birds chow down on the seeds outside my kitchen window.

Getting back to the bicycling part of our program, I returned home with a 25-pound bag of bird seed in one pannier and two light bulbs in the other. It sounds like this would make the bike ungainly but bikes are little engineering miracles. I had no trouble getting home.

After dropping off the seed and putting a bulb in an overhead fixture, I took off for my bank which is embedded in a supermarket on US 1. You'd be hard pressed to design a more hostile environment for bicycles than US 1. There are parallel separated lanes that provide access to the stores lining the highway so Big Nellie and I used them instead of the main roadway to get to and from the bank. On the way back I rode to a big box store to get stuff to replace the gross shower curtain and curtain rod in my bathroom. (I use the downstairs bathroom because the upstairs has been taken over by the ladies of the house and their mass quantities of incomprehensible personal beauty, cleansing, and hygiene products.)

After installing the shower stuff, I went to work on Little Nellie whose shifting has been problematic. After only ten minutes I think I had everything sorted out so I went for a 1 1/2 mile ride around the neighborhood to make sure.

For the next six hours I sat on my ass reading magazines on my deck. It's the closest thing I can do to sleeping in a hammock - since I don't have a hammock.

Late in my lazing, I realized that the Moonlight Memorial Monuments ride started in just 3 hours. I sent out reminders to bicycling friends on Facebook and Twitter, ate dinner, and drove to DC.

Despite being poorly promoted due to computer problems, about 50 people (a guess) showed up and, as night fell, left in two waves under a full moon to tour the famous sights along the mall and Potomac River. Hoping to meet up with Friday Coffee Club member, I intended to leave with the second group, led by Larry Black, the organizer of the event. Somehow a small group of us missed Larry's departure and were left to navigate our way using a cue sheet. Our group was anchored by Greg and Peggy on a Hase tandem bike that was half recumbent and half conventional. We left without the FCC rider who decided not to come after all and headed down to Pennsylvania Avenue where we rode straight toward the beautifully illuminated Capitol. The ride wound its way across Capitol Hill, down the mall and over to the White House. Then we went to the WWII and Lincoln Memorials.

Somewhere along the way, Jeff Dahloff, pulled up along side me. Jeff's a very experienced urban bike warrior and has endured my company on many a bike ride. Welcome aboard, Jeff.

I had somehow become the leader of the small group that had missed Larry's departure. I did my best to call out all the buildings as we passed. The Commerce Department nearly put our group to sleep but the bollards near the White House got everyone refocused. We even rolled by Swings House of Java, site of the world famous Friday Coffee Club meetings. My group ooh'ed and aah'ed.

I took a wrong turn at the Lincoln Memorial and we had to do some back tracking, but we were back on course without much ado. We ran with the tour buses along Ohio Drive, then made a break for East Potomac Park. On the way to Hains Point, Jeff and I got to talking and found a rhythm. We weren't going all that fast, but the folks behind us were apparently eating chips and dip as they rode. A ride organizer zoomed up to us and asked us to slow down and to stop and wait for the group to catch up at the next stop sign. No problemo.

About this time a group of really drunk people on the grass next to the road noticed us coming and came out to run along side us and cheer us on. They yelled something like "BWAA LOOK, HA. Damn!" It's hard to run without spilling a drink.We were by them pretty quickly.

At the stop sign, we met up with Larry's group, now 1 1/2 miles behind us on the ride. Larry's group had somehow gotten lost on Capitol Hill. As we commiserated with them, the first group that had left 15 minutes ahead of us pulled up. After comparing notes we all rode off. My group headed to the Jefferson Memorial. I think the other two groups headed down to Hains Point. After a photo op at the Jefferson, we headed back into East Potomac Park briefly, following the cue sheet back to the starting point and the ride's end. As we left East Potomac Park, we passed the other two groups clustered on an island in the middle of the road.

We rode back to the start only to find that the cluster of bikes had become an informal finish line. So many of the riders had biked to the start that they decided to head for home from East Potomac Park. My little group did the entire ride. We were impressed with ourselves. Chuffed even. Larry showed up with a few riders and we all went out for a post-ride drink at Capitol City Brewing Company, two blocks from the start.

The Moonlight Memorial Monuments ride is only 15 miles, but it is one of my favorites. It's very low key affair. My group was very chatty and we all had fun watching Greg and Peggy cruising along on their frankentandem.

I got home at 1:30. The weather is perfect again today. I think I'll get out and go for a ride.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Everyone knew that this evening was going to involve severe weather. The ride in on Little Nellie, my Bike Friday, was actually kind of nice. At Constitution Avenue along the mall, I could see the blue lights of a pair of police cars blocking traffic one block away at 14th Street. Traffic was a mess. The drivers were all irate. Dudes, get a bike. I rolled across Constitution and up 15th Street unimpeded. At Pennsylvania I could see more police cars and more closures. (Later I learned that there was a suspicious car parked down the street. They knew it was suspicious because the driver wore a top hat, had greasy dark hair, and had a long waxed mustache that he twirled in his long bony fingers.)

Attendance at Friday Coffee Club was about half of last week's, even with my old commuting buddy Charmaine making her first appearance. As we chatted, I drank an extra large coffee and inhaled a sugar encrusted pastry bomb. (Most people call these fritters. Fritter sounds like something small. These babies are huge.)

Fortified with manifestly unhealthy food, I took a direct route down G to the Kennedy Center as suggested by @lkono, a Friday Coffee Club regular. (We missed you today.) It was an easy straight shot until I got stuck behind a cement truck. The cement truck pulled over to allow a fire truck and ambulance come towards us, going the wrong way on our one-way street. I bailed onto the sidewalk and avoided the whole thing.

I hopped on a bike trail in front of the Kennedy Center and headed across the TR Bridge. The side path here is ridiculously narrow. I had to stop three times to let DC bound bike commuters by. I still made excellent time. So, a tip of the helmet to @lkono.

My boss also bike commutes. Several members of the staff like to provide him with weather updates. Today he was peppered with them. At a gap in the storms he left the office and made it home to NW DC with no problems. I checked the radar and realized that the storms were tracking along my route down the Potomac River. There was no avoiding them. I guessed that I could maybe ride the gap between two cells and make it home okay.

The first cell hit between the TR and Memorial Bridges. Lots of rain and a rumble of thunder or two but nothing too scary. Under the Memorial Bridge the trail narrows. I had to slow to a crawl to get by a runner who was taking shelter. On the south side of the bridge, the rain had almost stopped. Sweet!

Once I cleared the shelter of the 14th Street Bridge I could see trouble ahead. Dark clouds loomed. White caps on the river. A clear sheet of heavy rain tracking straight for me. In seconds I was soaked all over. The rain was coming down diagonally. The winds were picking up. The planes at DCA were on a ground stop. Pedal, pedal, toil and trouble.

In about 5 minutes the rain abated and the winds calmed. For the rest of the ride I was treated to a sprinkle or two, and a pocket of cold air from time to time.

South of the Beltway the trail was littered with fallen branches. I rode over and around them without incident. At Belle Haven Boulevard I saw a serious two-car crash, one car t-boning the other. Passersby had stopped to offer assistance. No emergency personnel had arrived yet. I hope the driver on the receiving end of the crash is okay.

By the time I arrived home I was almost dry. Another batch of storm clouds loomed in the distance. Go ahead and loom; I'm heading inside.

Freaky Friday was over. I've been bike commuting in DC and touring elsewhere for more than a decade. I've ridden through much worse than today. I've had trees fall near me. I've sought shelter with a dozen other people in the Belle Haven Park bathroom. I've stopped at the Torpedo Factory because of lightning. I've ridden through flooded streets in East Potomac Park and in Old Town Alexandria. And once, in Ohio, I unknowingly rode during a tornado warning. (Massive tailwinds and blinding rain made for an amazing ride.)